Boaty Mcboatface uncovers vital clue to rising sea levels
THE maiden voyage of Boaty Mcboatface, the robotic submarine named by the public, has made a discovery about how climate change is causing rising sea levels.
Scientists say that data collected from the yellow submarine’s first expedition will help them build more accurate predictions to combat the problem.
The mission has uncovered a process linking increasing Antarctic winds to higher sea temperatures, which in turn contributes to rising sea levels.
Researchers found the winds are cooling water on the ocean floor, forcing it to travel faster, creating turbulence as it mixes with warmer waters above.
Experts said the mechanism had not been factored into current models for predicting the impact of increasing global temperatures on oceans, meaning forecasts should be altered.
Boaty is carried on the research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough. Boaty undertook its first expedition in April 2017, studying the bottom of the Southern Ocean. During the three-day mission Boaty travelled 112 miles through vast underwater valleys measuring the temperature, saltiness and turbulence of the water at the bottom of the ocean, at depths of up to 13,000ft.
In recent decades, winds blowing over the Southern Ocean have been getting stronger due to the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica and increasing greenhouse gases.
The data, along with other measurements collected from RRS James Clark Ross, revealed a mechanism that enables these winds to increase turbulence deep in the ocean, causing warm water at mid depths to mix with cold, dense water in the abyss. The resulting warming of the water on the sea bed is a significant contributor to rising sea levels.
The mission was part of a project involving the University of Southampton, the National Oceanography Centre, the British Antarctic Survey, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Princeton University.
Prof Alberto Naveira Garabato, the research leader from Southampton, said: “Our study is an important step in understanding how the climate change happening in the remote and inhospitable Antarctic waters will impact the warming of the oceans as a whole and future sea level rise.”
Dr Eleanor Frajka-williams, of the National Oceanography Centre, said: “The data gave us a completely new way of looking at the deep ocean.”